(NY Times): Not a single gun shop can be found in this city because they are outlawed. Handguns were banned in Chicago for decades, too, until 2010, when the United States Supreme Court ruled that was going too far, leading city leaders to settle for restrictions some describe as the closest they could get legally to a ban without a ban. Despite a continuing legal fight, Illinois remains the only state in the nation with no provision to let private citizens carry guns in public.

And yet Chicago, a city with no civilian gun ranges and bans on both assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, finds itself laboring to stem a flood of gun violence that contributed to more than 500 homicides last year and at least 40 killings already in 2013, including a fatal shooting of a 15-year-old girl on Tuesday.

The Times’ writer, Monica Davey, attempts to paint a picture that so much of the problem stems from people purchasing guns legally outside of the city limits, which, yes, is true, because, um, there are no gun shops in Chicago. What she fails to point out is that law abiding citizens who live in Chicago are mostly not the ones purchasing, they are just the ones left without a means to defend themselves from the criminal elements in Chicago. And the criminals, quite a few whom are gang members, know this.

Chicago is awash in gangs, such as the Vice Lords, Latin Kings, La Raza Nation, and Gangster Disciples. CBS had reported that gang violence is so bad that police attend funerals in an attempt to stop revenge killings.

Lately, the police say they are discovering far more guns on the streets of Chicago than in the nation’s two more populous cities, Los Angeles and New York. They seized 7,400 guns here in crimes or unpermitted uses last year (compared with 3,285 in New York City), and have confiscated 574 guns just since Jan. 1 – 124 of them last week alone.

Most of them are being taken from criminals, many of them arrested for committing a crime.

Yet, Chicago wants to make it even more burdensome on the law abiding citizens who simply want a way to protect themselves from the lawlessness and violence rampant upon Chicago’s streets, a condition created by the same Democrats who want to disarm the law abiding citizens.

In the weeks since the mass shooting in Newtown, Conn., Toni Preckwinkle, the Cook County Board president, has introduced a countywide provision requiring gun owners beyond the city limits to report lost or stolen guns, though a first offense would result simply in a $1,000 fine. In the city, Mayor Rahm Emanuel has pressed for increased penalties for those who violate the city’s gun ordinance by failing to report their guns missing or possessing an assault weapon.

Perhaps the politicians in Cook County, along with Emanuel, should look towards going after the actual criminals themselves. But being tough on criminals doesn’t seem to be in the DNA of Democrats.

More: I’d usually drop this in a new post, but, since I did a crosspost, I’ll add this here:

(Daily Caller) On Wednesday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” the Center for American Progress’ Christie Hefner said that Chicago’s sky-high murder rate could be blamed – at least in part – on climate change.

“Yes, last year we hit a record number of murders from guns [in Chicago],” Hefner, the former chairwoman and chief executive officer of Playboy Enterprises, said. “And this year we are already outpacing last year’s numbers. Now, there are contributing factors that are not under anybody’s control and may seem odd, but it is factually true. One of them is actually the weather. There is a dramatic increase in gun violence when it is warmer. And we are having this climate change effect that is driving that.”

She tried to walk it back a bit, but, we all know that these climate astrologists thing hotcoldwetdry is to blame for everything, and, face it, dear reader, you are to blame for failing to go carbon neutral, or at least purchase lots of carbon credits to enrich people like Al Gore.